Category Archives: Crimes

Recently, I read a story at one of the online news websites about a man who stalked and stabbed an eight year old boy at an arcade. As is my normal practice, I also perused the comment section of the article. The backstory:

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — A man accused of repeatedly stabbing an 8-year-old boy playing video games at a restaurant arcade had spent weeks stalking potential victims at area shopping malls, police said Monday. “His intent was to kill a child,” Nassau County Police Sgt. Vincent Garcia said of 23-year-old Evan Sachs. Sachs was arrested Friday night, moments after police say he plunged the 4-inch blade of a hunting knife five times into the boy’s back.”

The story went on to state that the accused was undergoing psychiatric care.

Now, lest there be any confusion, I certainly do not have any empathy for the accused, but I was shocked at the comments that I read about him. It would seem that a fair portion of our fellow citizens feel that capital punishment without trial would be appropriate for the accused and that incarceration for the mentally ill should be mandatory.

The anonymity of faceless blogging does tend to bring out the worst in people, but really, capital punishment? I believe I have thoroughly explained my opposition to capital punishment, so it goes without saying that I am not in agreement with that type of commentary, but I have to wonder what drives someone to such levels of hatred.

Perhaps I am a bit naive, but I don’t recall many people with similar points of view in my journeys. Since when do we take a position completely contrary to the right of due process under the Constitution? Have we become so calloused that we flippantly advocate Iranian-style justice in the United States?

If in fact mental illness drove this young man to this crime, it needs to be dealt with accordingly, otherwise, the court system should proceed as it does with thousands of other cases each year. Despite the desires of extremists. we have yet to sink to the levels of barbarians.

I hope and pray that the eight year old boy recovers physically and psychologically. I also hope and pray that justice will be served under the law.

William Stephenson Clark

PS: The mine rescue events in Chile this evening (Tuesday) stand in stark contrast with the thoughts of some of our fellow Americans. It has to make you think about the direction we are headed.

“Well your honor I do believe I’d be better off dead
So if you can take a man’s life for the thoughts that’s in his head
Then sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time
And let `em shave off my hair and put me on that killin’ line”

Bruce Springsteen – “Johnny 99” – 1982 – from the album “Nebraska”

The death penalty, the ultimate punishment for a crime. To many, it is a thoroughly fitting punishment for murder. Many more are clamoring for new laws to shorten or eliminate some of the appeal process. There are some that want capital punishment to be extended to other crimes, beyond murder.

Since 1973 there have been 138 people released from Death Row after their innocence was proven. There have been eight men executed despite strong evidence that they were innocent. There have been many executed for crimes that did not fit the punishment.

I do not doubt the guilt of the Carr Brothers, Kleypus and Thurber, and I believe their crimes to be heinous, beyond human understanding. That having been said, I still can’t get past – 138 + 8.

My solution is not unique – life without the possibility of parole in a super-maximum security prison.

In a super-maximum security facility, prisoners are confined to their cells 23 hours a day, with only a single hour forsolitary exercise. They receive their meals in their cells. They take two showers per week, alone. They have a radio and a television, but the programming is limited to recreational, educational and religious, and the inmate can’t reach the electronics. Their reading materials and mail are censored and they have no contact with anyone except the guards. No one has ever escaped from a super-maximum security facility in the United States.

Super-max detention has been described by prisoners and prison officials as a “cleaner version of Hell.”

There are probably few topics that get more people hopping mad than the issue of illegal immigration. The recent “Stop and show me your papers!” law in Arizona has thrust the debate to center ice. There are critics of the law on both sides of the aisle, as well as supporters both red and blue.

Everyone, it seems, has a “solution” for the problem, some rational and some clearly idiotic. Estimates of the number of illegals in country range from official estimates of 10.8 – 12 million to insanely inflated totals of 30 million or more.

Solutions for dealing with those that are already here range from total amnesty to a mind-boggling round ’em up and bus them to Mexico, as if that were practical or all are Mexican nationals, for that matter.

Ideas regarding border security include such thoughts as landmines, fences – real and virtual, machine gun nests, calling out the National Guard or the Army and armed patrols of citizens.

There is no question that illegal immigration is a serious problem and it seems that damned near everyone has their own thoughts on the possible solutions.

These are mine……………………………………………………………………….

One, put some serious teeth into the penalties for knowingly hiring illegal workers. Teeth, as in “buckle-your-knees” jail time.

Two, provide a date certain by which those already in country, for at least a year, can apply for and and receive for a Green Card without repercussion. At that time, they could begin the process of applying for citizenship under current rules.

Three, national ID cards, if there is a way to make them counterfeit proof.

Four, after that date certain, anyone found to be in country illegally would summarily deported to their country of origin.

Five, allow our president to use every option available to our military to protect our borders as he or she deems necessary.

Those are my thoughts. The pot is boiling and the lid is about to be blown off. What are your thoughts?

Politico reports that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed the National Republican Senatorial Committee as part of its investigation into Senator John Ensign’s affair with a former staffer. The jury wants documents from the committee pertaining to Ensign’s tenure as the NRSC chairman during the 2007-2008 election cycle. According to local reports, federal agents are also investigating Ensign for allegedly offering to block legislation for a Nevada credit-card company in exchange for a $28,000 donation to the NRSC.

In a “desperate attempt” to salvage his New York bank, longtime finance executive Charles J. Antonucci Sr. allegedly lied to regulators to receive around $11 million through the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. The former president and chief executive of Park Avenue Bank of New York is the first person to be charged criminally with attempting to defraud TARP, The Wall Street Journal reports. He’s also been accused of bribery and other crimes, including “accepting free plane rides from a bank customer and stealing $103,000 from pastors of a church.” The bank, which specialized in commercial real-estate loans, failed on Friday after piling up more than $27 million in net losses last year. Antonucci could face up to 30 years in prison for each fraud or embezzlement charge.

As our very own DavidB related yesterday, Frank Rich of the NYTimes wrote an interesting editorial about Andrew Joseph Stack III, the pilot who crashed his single engine airplane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas. Rich was fascinated by the right’s reaction to this act domestic terrorism – in some cases they came close to praising the suicide mission as an expression of patriotism. For example, Steve King (R) of Iowa said, “It’s sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary. And when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the I.R.S., it’s going to be a happy day for America.” No one condemned the comments of King about the plane crash that resulted in the death of a single 68 year old postal worker.

Rich continues on and speculates that the political atmosphere is as poisonous now as it was in 1995 when Timothy McVeigh launched his attack on a Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK. I remember that time well and during that period I had a job where I often drove home late at night and to occupy myself I listened to A.M. talk radio. The nuts were out in full force back in that day and I wonder if truly we are having a re-emergence of that painful partisanship.